Introduction
Despite the progress made toward transgender employees in the workplace, millions of people still go to work with the fear of being discriminated or losing their jobs because of their sexual identity and who they are. At the moment, according to a report titled LGBT People’s Experiences of Workplace Discrimination and Harassment by the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, nearly “1 in 10 LGBTQ people in the United States experienced workplace discrimination in the last year, and almost half faced employment bias at some point in their careers no federal law protects transgender workers from employment discrimination” (Avery, 2021). This is such a shame because we are living in a world where diversity and inclusion are the keys to success in every organization. There are countless reasons to include people from all backgrounds. Particularly, creating a workplace culture where transgender employees are valued and included will not only help the company to diversify its workforce, making others feel safer, but it can also improve and create a positive image for the company as a place open for all people and ideas. Moreover, inclusivity is the sole driver of the power of innovation that comes through diversity and a full spectrum of policies that maintain inclusiveness.
Background Information
The problem of transgender employees’ discrimination in the workplace presents one of the prominent current issues in HR studies. As interests of T+ communities are not represented and protected by federal law, not all workplaces express inclusivity of employees with T+ gender identity. According to Dray et al. (2020) from 15 to 57 percent of trans employees are subjected to workplace discrimination. Moreover, due to the current socio-political climate in the United States and social stigmatism and about transgender people, in addition to facing discrimination, trans employees frequently experience rejection from their colleagues. According to Gerhardstein and Anderson, trans individuals are “liked less” than their cisgender counterparts (as cited in Dray et al., 2020, p. 1182). Moreover, there is a strong connection between the likability aspect and an individual’s job performance, influenced by the individual’s affiliation with sex and gender (Figure 1).
The issue of transgender discrimination in the workplace is primarily sourced in gender-connected societal norms that suggests expecting specific behavior from representatives of a certain gender. Therefore, most people are familiar only with characteristics that belong to the male or female gender and express confusion and disapproval when individuals act outside of what societal norms correspond to their gender. Current workplace policies lack measures geared towards informing employees about current societal issues and actions and behavior that help support modern corporate culture.
Current Measures
As the issue of transgender discrimination in the workplace is still under exploration, there are not many measures currently available for implementation in the workplace. Moreover, the issues with transgender discrimination in the workplace are frequently worsened by poor guidance and lack of support from supervisors and HR representatives (Elias et al., 2018). One of the common strategies recommended to trans people in the workplace is concealing their identity.
However, the identity concealing method is highly damaging for an individual’s mental stability and significantly reduces the level of job satisfaction, as well as other negative outcomes. The issue is complicated by the differences in the trans community, as some representatives are comfortable passing as cisgender while others refuse to follow any gender expectations. According to research conducted by Goryunova et al. (2021), the discrimination of transgender individuals is most likely to manifest during the job application process. Many participants in the research expressed that they were refused the job on the background check stage. Therefore, improving the situation with transgender discrimination requires addressing the issues in the workplace, including the stage of the job application process.
Possible Improvements
To improve the situation and promote trans employees’ inclusivity in the workplace, companies need to act proactively and establish company’s transgender policy that would also cover the process of the job application. According to Elias et al. (2018), conducting the company’s transgender policy requires reviewing the existing organizational approach towards sex and gender topics. Therefore, HR representatives must implement measures that will cultivate a welcoming work environment for trans employees. One of the possible ways of implementation is educating employees on their responsibilities and input to corporate climate and the benefits of inclusivity for corporate culture (Elias et al., 2018). Several big companies such as AT&T, IBM, and Campbells support their transgender employees’ rights by implementing anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies (Katari, 2019). As an alternative, the companies may also reapproach their views on employees’ job performance and the influence that gender and sex have on employees’ likeability.
Conclusion
In conclusion, creating a workplace culture where transgender employees are valued and included requires sufficient support from the HR studies. The support includes development of common transgender policies for organizations and defining methods to raise other employees’ awareness on the issue. This paper provided a background on the current state of transgender discrimination in the workplace issue, its causes, and defined possible strategies to improve the current situation through analysis of existing literature. The topic requires further research that may focus on conducting interviews with employees from companies that currently implement transgender inclusivity policies and how the policies changed their perception of gender-connected societal norms.
References
Avery, D. (2021). Half of LGBTQ workers have faced job discrimination, report finds. NBC News. Web.
Dray, K. K., Smith, V. R. E., Kostecki, T. P., Sabat, I. E., & Thomson, C. R. (2020). Moving beyond the gender binary: Examining workplace perceptions of nonbinary and transgender employees. Gender, Work & Organization, 27(6), 1181-1191. Web.
Elias, N. M., Johnson, R. L., Ovando, D., & Ramirez, J. (2018). Improving transgender policy for a more equitable workplace. Journal of Public Management & Social Policy, 24(2), 53-81.
Goryunova, E., Schwartz, A. K., & Turesky, E. F. (2021). Exploring workplace experiences of transgender individuals in the USA. Gender in Management, 1-19. Web.
Katari, S. (2019). 9 Companies that advocate for their transgender employees and the community at large. Ripple Match. Web.